How do I access XMLType using JDBC ?

Question

This thread will address a number of issues related to accessing XMLType tables and columns from Java via JDBC.

Answer 1

The following code shows examples of accessing XMLType using Java getting an instance of W3C DOM interface org.w3c.dom.Document. It also shows how which DOM implementation is returned by the getDOM() method is dependant on whether or not the OCI driver or Thin Dirver is in used.
The code also show how to use the createNonSchemaBasedXMLType() method to access a schema based XMlLType via the thin driver...
public class GetXMLTypeDOM extends BaseApplication
   protected String driverType;
   protected String getDriver() {
     return this.driverType;
   public void doSomething(String[] Args) throws Exception
     OraclePreparedStatement  statement = null;
     this.driverType = this.OCI_DRIVER;
     this.initializeConnection();
     statement = (OraclePreparedStatement) getConnection().prepareStatement("select object_value from PURCHASEORDER_NSB_XMLTYPE where rownum < 2");
     getDocument(statement);
     statement = (OraclePreparedStatement) getConnection().prepareStatement("select object_value from PURCHASEORDER_SB_XMLTYPE where rownum < 2");
     getDocument(statement);
     getConnection().close();
     this.driverType = this.THIN_DRIVER;
     this.initializeConnection();
     statement = (OraclePreparedStatement) getConnection().prepareStatement("select object_value from PURCHASEORDER_NSB_XMLTYPE where rownum < 2");
     getDocument(statement);
     statement = (OraclePreparedStatement) getConnection().prepareStatement("select object_value from PURCHASEORDER_SB_XMLTYPE where rownum < 2");
     getDocument(statement);
     statement = (OraclePreparedStatement) getConnection().prepareStatement("select x.object_value.createNonSchemaBasedXML() from PURCHASEORDER_SB_XMLTYPE x where rownum < 2");
     getDocument(statement);
     getConnection().close();
   private void getDocument(OraclePreparedStatement statement)
     OracleResultSet resultSet = null;
     org.w3c.dom.Document  doc = null;
     XMLType xml = null;
     try {
       resultSet = (OracleResultSet) statement.executeQuery();
       while (resultSet.next())
          xml = (XMLType) resultSet.getObject(1);
          doc = xml.getDOM();
          System.out.println("DOM Implementation is " + doc.getClass().getName());
          xml.close();
       resultSet.close();
       statement.close();
    catch (SQLException sqle) {
        System.out.println("Caught SQL Exception : " + sqle.getMessage());
  public static void main (String[] args)
    try
      GetXMLTypeDOM example = new GetXMLTypeDOM();
      example.doSomething(args);
    catch (Exception e)
      e.printStackTrace();
}Here's the output from running this class..
C:\TEMP>
C:\Oracle\JDeveloper\jdk\bin\javaw.exe -client -classpath C:\xdb\JDeveloper\Classes;C:\Oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\jdbc\lib\ojdbc14.jar;C:\Oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\LIB\xmlparserv2.jar;C:\Oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\RDBMS\jlib\xdb.jar;C:\xdb\JDeveloper\jakarta-slide-webdavclient-bin-2.1\lib\jakarta-slide-webdavlib-2.1.jar;C:\xdb\JDeveloper\jakarta-slide-webdavclient-bin-2.1\lib\commons-httpclient.jar;C:\xdb\JDeveloper\jakarta-slide-webdavclient-bin-2.1\lib\commons-logging.jar;C:\xdb\JDeveloper\jakarta-slide-webdavclient-bin-2.1\lib\jdom-1.0.jar -Dcom.oracle.st.xmldb.pm.ConnectionParameters=C:\\xdb\\jdeveloper\\SimpleExamples\\LocalConnection.xml -Dhttp.proxyHost=www-proxy.us.oracle.com -Dhttp.proxyPort=80 -Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=192.168.0.77|localhost|192.168.1.1|*.oracle.com|*.us.oracle.com -Dhttps.proxyHost=www-proxy.us.oracle.com -Dhttps.proxyPort=80 -Dhttps.nonProxyHosts=192.168.0.77|localhost|192.168.1.1|*.oracle.com|*.us.oracle.com com.oracle.st.xmldb.pm.examples.GetXMLTypeDOM -mx2048M
ConnectionProvider.establishConnection(): Connecting as SCOTT/TIGER@jdbc:oracle:oci8:@(description=(address=(host=localhost)(protocol=tcp)(port=1521))(connect_data=(service_name=ORA10GR2.xp.mark.drake.oracle.com)(server=DEDICATED)))
ConnectionProvider.establishConnection(): Database Connection Established
DOM Implementation is oracle.xdb.dom.XDBDocument
DOM Implementation is oracle.xdb.dom.XDBDocument
ConnectionProvider.establishConnection(): Connecting as SCOTT/TIGER@jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:ORA10GR2
ConnectionProvider.establishConnection(): Database Connection Established
DOM Implementation is oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLDocument
Caught SQL Exception : Only LOB or String Storage is supported in Thin XMLType
DOM Implementation is oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLDocument
Process exited with exit code 0.